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READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS on Euripides’ Helen
1. What are the reflections of Teucros on the Trojan War? And what are his feelings
towards Helen?
2. Why is he there?
3. What has the war meant for Helen’s own life?
4. What is the significance of the phantom Helen? Why do you think Euripides has
created this device in the play?
5. What does the servant of Menelaos have to say about prophecy on page 141?
6. How would you characterize Helen? Find some specific passages that support
your impressions.
7. What is Theonoe like? Find passages to support your impressions.
8. What is Menelaos like? Find passages that support your impressions.
9. How does the relationship between Helen and Menelaos compare with the
marriages we have seen in other Greek plays?
10. Compare Theonoe and Helen to the other female characters we have read about in
Aeschylus and Sophocles.
11. What is the role of the gods in this play? What is Euripides’ attitude toward
them?
